A contingent from the Gorkha Regiment of the army and students of Sainik School Purulia will participate in the Independence Day parade on Red Road for the first time on Tuesday.
The parade will start at 10.30am and is likely to last over an hour and a half.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will preside over the celebrations.
Students from several schools will march down Red Road. Units from Kolkata police and their counterparts in the state will display their gallantry.
“For the first time, a contingent from the Gorkha Regiment (GR) will participate in the Independence Day parade on Red Road. Usually, an army contingent participates in the Republic Day parade. But never before has there been any representation from the Gorkha Regiment during the Independence Day parade,” an officer from the army’s Eastern Command told The Telegraph.
Six Gorkha Regiments that were part of the British Indian army became part of the Indian army after independence, in keeping with the terms of the Britain-India-Nepal tripartite agreement. The troops are mainly from the ethnic Gorkha communities of India and Nepal.
Sam Manekshaw, the first field marshal of the independent India’s army, was from the 2/8 Gorkha Rifles.
Sainik School Purulia, which has former Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha among its illustrious alumni, will present a 78-cadet contingent comprising 60 boys and 18 girls at the Red Road parade on Tuesday.
“The contingent will also have a band made of cadets who will play during the parade,” the officer said.
The parade will witness several tableaus depicting different social initiatives by the state government moving down Red Road.
The chief minister will be handing over awards to a clutch of police officers on the occasion.
Senior officials in the home department said the awards have been divided into two categories this time — chief minister’s police medal for outstanding service and chief minister’s police medal for commendable service.
Ahead of Tuesday’s celebrations, senior officers of the city police said the entire stretch of Red Road would be split into dozen-plus zones with senior police officers of the rank of deputy police commissioner posted in each of them.
“A team of special commando forces and a quick response team will be deployed along the entire stretch of Red Road for security cover,” said a senior police officer.
